


My New Freedom

by Skylar0Grace



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-14
Updated: 2012-03-14
Packaged: 2017-11-27 13:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylar0Grace/pseuds/Skylar0Grace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I’m feeling like I’ll blame it on love...”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	My New Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> The Substitute/The Entry Arc spoilers. AU s3. Set after 2x21 (slightly AU). ‘Lover After Me’ lyrics by Savage Garden. I own nothing.

* * *

  


_Here I go again, I promised myself I wouldn’t think of you today_   
_It’s been seven months and counting_   
_You’ve moved on, I still feel exactly the same_   
_It’s just that everywhere I go all the buildings know your name_   
_Like photographs and memories of love, steel and granite reminders_   
_The city calls your name but I can’t move on_

“Just leave, Ichigo, and don’t look back.”

The words cut deeply and he was stock still as Yoruichi pushed him from the Soul Society. He wasn’t really aware of anything until he found himself back in his room, looking at the closet. It all seemed so empty without her. He heard a noise from his closet – like someone softly calling his name. He pulled open the door and fell over backward as a Hollow lunged out at him.

Ichigo sat up quickly, panting.

His eyes automatically searched the room but the absence of danger, and Rukia, had him flopping back down onto his bed. No one had been calling him. Rukia hadn’t been calling him. In fact, that whole part of his life was gone – like it had never happened. He’d inexplicably lost his powers on the way back and though he didn’t have powers anymore, no ability to fight the Hollows, he could still see them roaming the streets.

And someone was – someone was doing the job he’d once had.

Sometimes he could swear that he still had that power; occasionally the energy would pulse through him like a constant reminder of Rukia. Of the force she had been in his life, no matter how accidental or temporary.

He wondered how she was faring in the Soul Society. He wasn’t under any illusions that she had been welcomed back with open arms – she’d broken one of their most basic rules regarding humans but she’d refused any assistance he’d offered. She’d claimed that he didn’t understand their ways, that he never could, and had thwarted his rescue plan by forcing him back home. The last thing he’d seen was Rukia in chains being comforted by the same red-haired buffoon that had helped capture her.

They’d looked close.

Ichigo rubbed at his chest. Whenever he thought of the two of them, his heart ached. Had he gotten it wrong? Had her heart already belonged to someone else? He’d done so much for the Soul Society; he had fought off Hollows that no one else could, or at least was, fighting. To suddenly go from that, to being nothing and doing nothing... he was lost.

And he was lost without her.

She was gone, maybe even already dead, and he knew that he should forget about her, about her world, and concentrate on school and family but he couldn’t let her go. And he didn’t want to.


End file.
